The Tarplee Family

Dax's First Christmas Lights

Dax loves Christmas. Not because of new toys, seeing friends and family, or great food, but because of Christmas lights. He "helped" Todd and his dad hang the lights this year by checking each light. His preferred technique... pound it into the ground!

4th of July in Mammoth

I know what you're thinking... July was six months ago, but at least we're posting the pics! We love the mountains and Mammoth in the summer is about as good as it gets. Warm in the sun, while cool in the shade, and the dreamy smell of crisp clean air. We brought some friends from Michigan who were Sierra newbies, so we hit Yosemite and... for anyone who knows Todd this a big deal... the Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoias. Todd is a Redwood/Sequoia nerd. Check out a few images from the trip!

Donald & Katie's Wedding

Todd's college roommate, and good friend Donald was married a few weekends ago in La Jolla. Todd was in the wedding. It was a beautiful evening ceremony. We'd never been to a wedding after dark, but the lights hanging in huge, old trees gave the wedding a unique feel. Here's a few pictures.

You know what they say about big dogs...

...that's right, they have big houses. Last weekend Todd and his dad built a dog house for Tucker. Allow me to tell you a quick story about why Tucker needs a dog house.

For those who haven't had the pleasure of him drooling on you, Tucker is our 105 pound bloodhound. He is the most loving animal you will ever meet. His favorite things to do are sit on you, sleep in the sun, run with his dad, and smell everything. We love him. Dax likes to hang from his 13" ears. With that said, bloodhounds are not the easiest animals to train and Tucker has a taste for all things green. For example, we planted a beautiful, hard-to-find tree in our yard. A few days later, we came home from work and Tucker had gnawed the tree in half. Not only that, he had pulled the tree out of the ground -- root ball and all -- and was prancing around with a "stick" that was as big as him. Did we mention he's really strong? That is just one example, so needless to say he now gets tied to a 20 foot leash during the day while we are at work.

Tied to a leash, he no longer had access to shelter from the cold and rain, so we built him a dog house (none of the pre-made houses were big enough). Check out this pic of the dog house. We'll post another when we install the composite roof and paint it.

First few days in Hawaii

It's been a long time since we posted, so we have to apologize, but here's a few pic's of the first few days of our vacation in Hawaii. Check em out!